A Fine Custom Morristown Tale
Recently the owners were having the house painted. To their dismay, one of the painters reported that some of the clapboard had disintegrated at the mere touch of their scrapers. Being savvy old house owners, they recognized the evidence of a long-term and long-hidden leak. They figured they had better call the experts. It was pretty bad, but we performed a swift and expert surgery to the owner's great satisfaction. It was another case of faulty flashing. But a greater tale emerged as the rotten clapboard fell away, an archaeological tale of American history.
A decade before the breaking of ground for this house our young nation was newly birthed and broke. Among the financial woes of our fledgling government was the compensation of soldiers who had fought the Revolutionary War. The solution to that particular problem is where the story of this house begins: Uncle Sam gave the Veterans land.
Originally, in 1798, the soldier built this house on a one-hundred acre farm, all part of the Federal grant. Most of that land has gone the way of much real estate in the intervening two hundred years. The current house sits on about nine acres of undisturbed land.
Just about now you might be saying to yourself," Wait a minute, you keep saying the house was built in 1798, the Federal era, but the main part of the house in the photo below doesn't look a day over one-hundred sixty-five! In fact I'd say (with the exception of the clearly updated glazing) the old gal is a splendid example of Second Empire design, likely putting her somewhere in the 1840s. And another thing, that addition on the left of the photo looks like it was put on in the late 1960s! " Well, OK, you're right. In fact the house has actually been remodeled so many times that it has a smattering of almost every American architectural period, much of which, however, is no longer plainly visible. If you scroll down, I promise you will see two-hundred and fourteen year old guts.
The fact that the original foundation wall is so low to the ground and that it is almost two feet thick (not really visible in the photo)is consistent with the Federal period. Its thickness will be critical to the repair...
Now we are ready to wrap up the repair...
Like it was never there!
The happy ending to our tale.